5 Innovation Tips for Tomorrow’s World

We asked some of Europe’s leading innovation experts, entrepreneurs and thought leaders for their best tips on innovation and how to succeed in tomorrow’s world.

Here are their top 5 tips:

Dhiraj Mukherjee – Founder of Shazam

The best way to innovate is to speak to people, to watch their behaviour, to listen to their stories, and to observe their actions. The art is to put oneself in the customer’s shoes, see the world from their perspective, and notice where things aren’t quite right or could be done better. It’s about getting immersed in their world and their problems to start putting a finger on where the solution might lie. In scientific terminology this is called ethnographic research and, in the simplest sense, it’s building empathy with the customer.

Markus Hengstschläger – Director if the Institute of Medical Genetics

We need the right mix of flexibility and safety for innovative success. It’s about navigating the predictable and unpredictable futures; about discovering, promoting and developing a person’s talents through practice. Success isn’t about money or newspaper inches. It’s also a smile, for instance, or the realisation of changing something for generations hence.

Heimo Hammer – owner & CEO of Kraftwerk

Think about what the customer of tomorrow will want. Will they exist in a ‘cold’ or ‘warm’ world? Has the social aspect of a person explaining a product or service, listening to the customer, gone away? Is the warm / human contact a pattern of the past and too expensive for tomorrow? The market will most likely split up into fast (digital) and slow (physical, people-centric). What is the role of humans in the mass market of the future? Will there be no human being in the customer journey in the mass market?

Dave Birss – author and founder of RIGHTthinking.co

Most companies have a tortuous process for innovative ideas to go through. Multiple decision makers with different priorities get involved to give feedback according to their agenda. Status meeting after status meeting stops any momentum and turns the process into a slog. And the most important leaders only get involved at the end, giving feedback at the most harmful and expensive stage of the process. It’s a wonder any ideas get through at all.

I find that the best way to innovate is to remove the meetings, shorten the process and get to a prototype as quickly as possible. And to assign one person to be the ultimate decision maker. They set the vision at the start along with the leadership team. And they have the right to veto everyone else’s feedback. As long as everyone understands that this is the way things need to work, the process is a lot smoother and the end result is a lot better.

Carla Johnson – Renowned keynote speaker & author – and Jon Burkhart – founder of marketing consultancy TBC Global

Newsflash: Everyone who’s ever bought anything from your company has been human. And if you want people to hang around, you have to tickle the pleasure centres in their brain. Ideally with grape, strawberry and orange flavoured things.

To keep up with customers in 2019, brands large and small must be quick to change, and willing to ask themselves – is the content you’ve created different and a bit risky? Are the questions you’re answering provocative enough to lead to great content?

Fast Forward Files: Opening Up, published by Molden Verlag, which is available now, priced at £28. For more details visit https://fastforwardforum.eu/

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